O R D E R

The petitioner herein is the accused in S.C. No.

468 of 2014 of the Court of Session (Special Court for the trial of Offences under the SC/ST Act), Thalassery, involving the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (prior to the amendment). He seeks orders quashing the prosecution on the ground that the defacto complainant is not now a member of any scheduled caste. His case is that originally, the complainant belonged to a scheduled caste, but later, he embraced Christianity. It appears that the complainant's case is that though he once embraced Christianity, he has come back to Hinduism, and has joined the original caste to which be belonged. The petitioner's case is that even if such a re-conversion is possible, the complainant cannot claim the status as a member of the scheduled caste because, once he embraced another religion, he would lose his status as a member of the scheduled caste. The complainant has produced some documents showing what his actual caste is. Whether the complainant is actually a member of any scheduled caste, or whether he has embraced another religion, or whether he has re-co